CELEBRATING 50 FLAVORFUL YEARS

Setting up a roadside stand that
sold peaches in season and a handful of homemade jams and jellies, then
building that business over half a century into a company with 150-plus
products sold in all 50 states and several foreign countries seems cause for
celebration.

On July 6, Case D. Fischer and
Mark Wieser of Fischer & Wieser Specialty Foods plan to do exactly that in
their hometown of Fredericksburg, Texas..

Much has changed in the food
business over those 50 years, besides a single company’s growth. The Texas Hill
Country has become a wine tourism mecca, second only to Napa Valley. The town
founded by Germans in 1946 has become more ethnically diverse and more
connected to Austin and San Antonio, though still remembering its roots in the
Old Country. And surely most importantly, the world has become more fascinated
by the flavors of and the stories behind a huge menu of global foods.

“We refer to it as the Culinary
Adventure,” says President/CEO Fischer. “It reflects the amazing journey so
many of us have made, from seeking mere sustenance to cultural celebration.
July 6 is an opportunity for us to get together and celebrate the blessing that
it has been to build a business right here in our hometown. We could never have
done it without the support and partnership of our families, vendors and
customers along the way.”

The open-to-the-public
anniversary party takes place 5-9 p.m. at Das Peach Haus, the historic retail
store operated by Fischer & Wieser at the site of the Wieser family’s
original peach orchard from 1928. There will be a food truck (pizza by chef and
bread guru Josh Raymer), live music on the deck (The Trey Shoots Trio), wine
specials and drawings for prizes, all ending in a fireworks display after dark
over the pond.

Founder Mark Wieser, then a high
school teacher and later a county judge, opened a small stand selling peaches
and other fresh produce in 1969, adding to the line with jams and jellies he
cajoled his mother into making. In doing so, they were both paying homage to
Mark’s visionary father, German-born JB Wieser. JB decided the area would be
perfect for growing peaches and other fruits he remembered fondly from his
native land. Before that, cotton had been the crop of choice.

Within less than a decade, by the
mid-1930s, newspapers in the big cities of Texas and beyond were writing about
“Fredericksburg peaches,” as though they had been the signature product there
forever. The fame of these peaches grew as more tourists starting visiting the
German town, especially once President Lyndon B. Johnson established his
high-profile “Texas White House” on his family’s land just up the highway.

Wieser and Case D. Fischer, a local teenager who worked around the farm before studying food science and marketing at Texas A&M, became business partners in the 1980s. It was Fischer, working over a small stove, who developed The Original Roasted Raspberry Sauce, which took home Best New Flavor honors from the Fancy Food Show in New York City in 1997. The iconic sauce remains the company’s best seller, even as new, unexpected products diversified into additional brands, including the Italian-inspired comfort foods of Mom’s and the Asian-inspired wonders of Dr. Foo’s Kitchen. Over time, Fischer & Wieser incorporated Case Fischer’s wife Deanna and eventually their next generation, including Dietz, who earned a degree in engineering at Texas A&M, and Simon, who studied wine-making in Napa Valley.